Robert Cailliau.
Photo CERN

WWW's historical logo designed by Robert Cailliau

Robert Cailliau (b. 26 January 1947) together with Sir Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web. Image File history File links Robert_Cailliau_On_Desk. ... Image File history File links Robert_Cailliau_On_Desk. ... CERN logo The European Organization for Nuclear Research (French: ), commonly known as CERN (see Naming), pronounced (or in French), is the worlds largest particle physics laboratory, situated just northwest of Geneva on the border between France and Switzerland. ... Image File history File links WWWlogo. ... Image File history File links WWWlogo. ... is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A software developer is a person who is concerned with one or more facets of the software development process, a somewhat broader scope of computer programming or a specialty of project managing. ... WWWs historical logo designed by Robert Cailliau The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked, hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. ...

Biography

Cailliau was born in Tongeren, Belgium. In 1958 he moved with his parents to Antwerp. After secondary school he graduated from Ghent University in 1969 as civil engineer in electrical and mechanical engineering (Dutch: Burgerlijk Werktuigkundig en Elektrotechnisch ingenieur). He also has an MSc from the of University of Michigan in Computer, Information and Control Engineering, 1971. Tongeren is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg near Hasselt. ... For other uses, see Antwerp (disambiguation). ... Ghent University (in Dutch, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated UGent) is one of the three large Flemish universities. ... MSC can stand for: Marine Stewardship Council Masters of Science (usually MSc or M.Sc. ... The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (U of M, U-M or simply Michigan) is a coeducational public research university in the state of Michigan, and one of the foremost universities in the United States. ...

In December 1974 he started working at CERN as a Fellow in the Proton Synchrotron (PS) division, working on the control system of the accelerator. In April 1987 he left the PS division to become group leader of Office Computing Systems in the Data Handling division. In 1989, he and Tim Berners-Lee independently proposed a hypertext system for access to the CERN documentation. This led to a common proposal in 1990 and then to the World Wide Web. CERN logo The European Organization for Nuclear Research (French: ), commonly known as CERN (see Naming), pronounced (or in French), is the worlds largest particle physics laboratory, situated just northwest of Geneva on the border between France and Switzerland. ... Sir Tim Berners-Lee Sir Tim (Timothy John) Berners-Lee, KBE (TimBL or TBL) (b. ... In computing, hypertext is a user interface paradigm for displaying documents which, according to an early definition (Nelson 1970), branch or perform on request. ... CERN logo The European Organization for Nuclear Research (French: ), commonly known as CERN (see Naming), pronounced (or in French), is the worlds largest particle physics laboratory, situated just northwest of Geneva on the border between France and Switzerland. ... WWWs historical logo designed by Robert Cailliau The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked, hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. ...

In 1993, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Cailliau started the European Commission's first web-based project for information dissemination in Europe. The Fraunhofer Society (German Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) is a German research organization named after the German physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer, with 58 institutes spread over Germany each focusing on different fields of applied science, as opposed to the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, which works mostly on basic science. ... The Commission seat in Brussels The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive body of the European Union. ...

As a result of his work with CERN's Legal Service, CERN released the web technology into the public domain on 30 April 1993. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

In December 1993 he called for the first International WWW Conference^[1] which was held at CERN in May 1994. That conference has met yearly ever since.

In 1994 he started the "Web for Schools" project with the European Commission, introducing the web as a resource for education.

After helping to transfer the web development from CERN to the W3C, he devoted his time to public communication. He is expected to fully retire from CERN in 2007. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is a consortium that produces standards—recommendations, as they call them—for the World Wide Web. ...

Cailliau declares on his website that he is an atheist. “Atheist” redirects here. ...

Awards

• 1995: ACM Software System Award (with Tim Berners-Lee)^[2]
• 1999: Plantin Prize Antwerp
• 1999: Dr. Hon. Southern Cross University
• 2000: Dr. Hon. University of Ghent
• 2001: Médaille Genève Reconnaissante (with Tim Berners-Lee)
• 2004: Commander in the Order of King Leopold (awarded by King Albert II of Belgium)
• 2006: Honorary citizenship of the city of Tongeren

The Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, was founded in 1947 as the worlds first scientific and educational computing society. ... For other uses, see Antwerp (disambiguation). ... An honorary degree (Latin: honoris causa ad gradum, not to be confused with an honors degree) is an academic degree awarded to an individual as a decoration, rather than as the result of matriculating and studying for several years. ... Southern Cross University (SCU) is a university based on the Mid North and North coast of New South Wales, Australia. ... Ghent University (in Dutch, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated UGent) is one of the two large Flemish universities. ... Order of Léopold The Order of Léopold is the highest Order military order of Belgium and is named in honour of King Léopold I. The decoration was established in 1832. ... Albert II, King of the Belgians (Albert Félix Humbert Théodore Chrétien Eugène Marie), (born June 6, 1934), is the current King of the Belgians and a constitutional monarch. ... Tongeren is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg near Hasselt. ...

Works

• How the Web Was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web, James Gillies, Robert Cailliau (Oxford Paperbacks, 2000) ISBN 0-19-286207-3

References

• Short Curriculum Vitae of Dr. Ir. Robert Cailliau
• Hypertext in the Web - a History, ACM 1999

1. ^ International World Wide Web Conference Committee
2. ^ World-Wide Web Protocol and NCSA Mosaic Developers Honored with ACM Software System Award

External links

• Robert Cailliau's home page